Go-Go's in Concert

We saw the Go-Go's at Crypto.com Arena on March 30th—with things opening up, it was a thrill to see a live concert, particularly a band that broke through when I was at UCLA, so they were part of my college soundtrack. (For Christmas, I received drummer Gina Schock’s coffee table memoir of memories and photos, Made In Hollywood: All Access with the Go-Go's, where I learned the band played and hung out at places I haunted back in the day.) While I’ve always enjoyed their song catalog, Talk Show has always been one of my favorite albums.

We actually had missed getting tickets for a Go-Go's concert in L.A. back in December, around the time the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, because I dragged my feet on getting tickets…but that show and others ended up being cancelled due to someone on the tour getting COVID. So when an ad popped up for this show, we were sure to grab a pair right away (I later learned it was part of a busy current tour they’re on!)

The band did not disappoint and leaned heavily into the fast-driving punk surfer sound of their early years. The only small disappointment was that Schock, my favorite Go-Go (on whom I always had a crush), apparently was recovering from some recent surgery—fortunately, she was well enough to attend and came out onstage a couple times to rev up the audience and introduce the band. Filling in for Schock was Blondie drummer Clem Burke, who ably kept the band tight.

When we walked into the venue, I was surprised at how intimate the space felt—and how close we were to the stage. We were only one section up from the main floor. Although most of the show was sold out (the upper nose bleed seats were not in use), for some reason nearly our entire row was empty, so we had it to ourselves!

I actually have never been inside Crypto before (formerly the Staples Center), home to the Lakers, Clippers and Kings. Located in downtown L.A., the surrounding area (and, indeed, all downtown) has been undergoing transformation (and, yes, gentrification) in recent years—back in the day, downtown was home to offices and businesses, but otherwise a ghost town at night and on weekends. Outside the arena, directly across the street and throughout downtown, high rise buildings were in various stages of construction—we arrived a few hours in advance to grab dinner a few blocks away prior to the show and, on the way, walked across tracks of the relatively new L.A. Metro rail that the city has been building out. (I’ve taken the Metro from our Westside home to downtown L.A. in the past, a fairly jaunty 35-minute ride.) The Crypto.com arena has statues of Lakers (and Kings) greats outside and anchors an entertainment complex called L.A. Live that houses retail stores, restaurants, a performing arts venue called Microsoft Theater, and the Grammy Museum.

My biggest fear when attending concerts is getting stuck in parking lot traffic on the way out…which fortunately turned out to be a non-issue. I pre-paid for parking, strategically choosing a lot on the near side of our drive so that we wouldn’t have to drive into or through downtown…in fact, we live close enough that we decided to take local streets into downtown L.A. to avoid evening rush hour freeway traffic, almost literally a straight shot from our place and then a left turn, much of it running parallel with the above-mentioned Metro rail (my wife works in downtown L.A. so she is particularly familiar with the area).

We left the arena at the same time as everyone else but when we got to our car, people were still straggling into the parking lot, so we simply hopped in the car and exited the structure without any traffic or hindrance! In the street, there was a backup of cars to get to the freeway, but we simply turned right out of the garage into the opposite direction and took local streets until we were far enough out of the area and concert traffic to then hop on the freeway and drive home the last five or so miles home (we’re about 11 miles from downtown). Anyway, it was a terrific and memorable show!

Report on the 2022 WonderCon – Masks Required!

WonderCon was held Friday, April 1 through Sunday, April 3, 2022 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Below is a full report—click here to go straight to the photo gallery.

My wife and I had great fun visiting WonderCon at the Anaheim Convention Center on the third and last day of the show, Sunday, April 3! It was a nice change of pace to attend a comics convention as a regular attendee rather than be tied to a table as an exhibitor. I checked in with a bunch of friends and colleagues, including Christie Shinn, Rafael Navarro, Lonnie Millsap, and Bobby Breed, and also enjoyed meeting and introducing myself for the first time to people like Don Nguyen (who I discovered is a fellow UCLA alum!), Craig Miller and others.

A little sister to the San Diego Comic-Con (and run by the same folks), WonderCon has a different vibe from SDCC. While the San Diego show is a big umbrella for all things pop culture and feels like a big 24/7 party—partly thanks to the presence of big entertainment heavy hitters and IPs ranging from Warner Brothers (and DC), Marvel Studios (and Marvel Comics), Star Wars, the Walking Dead and more—WonderCon is generally more low key with a more “arts and crafts” feel (for want of a better term), with artists and vendors selling a variety of wares from original art, to prints, t-shirts, toys, cosplay costumes, as well as, of course, comics. All these, of course, can also be easily found at SDCC, but are a bit more subsumed by the bigger guns and nearly manic energy that dominate that show.

But if you’re more into comics, there's still plenty to be found at WonderCon (and San Diego) if you‘re so inclined!

And I took advantage of that—I spent most of my time leisurely walking through Artist’s Alley and the Small Press area, which were placed on opposite sides of the convention hall. Back in the day, I used to methodically walk up and down each aisles starting from one end of the hall to the other—as SDCC became more crowded (and way bigger), this became less feasible, with crowd congestion generally dictating which way I went. At WonderCon, however, I was able to take this approach to my heart’s content, checking out most of the exhibitors. (My wife cannily suggested we go off on our own to pursue our own passions and interests, and we would periodically check in with each other and of course met up for lunch.)

Unlike SDCC, the Anaheim Convention Center is sectioned off into adjoining but discreet halls; in contrast, the San Diego Convention Center can tuck away and collapse its hall dividers to create the illusion of one immense exhibition hall that has the more open and welcoming feel of housing everyone under one roof. I gathered from some conversations, however, that this layout somewhat had an impact on foot traffic and the number of people and sales in certain areas of the venue.That said, the open plaza entrance to the Anaheim venue helps relieve some of the crowd congestion in the convention center by naturally encouraging cosplayers and people to pose and offer photo ops outside—that still happens on the inside as well, but the outside area is a good place to eventually see all the cosplayers gathered in a central location.

Like I suspect many comics professionals, it’s often a challenge to read and keep up with comics these days while spending time producing them, so it was an enjoyable experience to stop and look at new stuff and particularly to talk shop with other creators and publishers. I actually even brought along old back issues of mine to hand out as freebies and use as “calling cards” as needed, and ended up giving them all away!

Of course, this also was the first WonderCon since 2019 due to the pandemic. I didn’t check the the health safety requirements for the show in advance, but we fortunately arrived prepared—as you may have seen in an earlier post which featured a selfie of my wife and me, masks were required and, of course, we always carry proof of vaccination on our mobile devices, which were duly checked when entering the convention center grounds. (I’d say about 90 percent of folks followed the mask policy.)

Since I was only there on the third day of the show, I can’t report whether there was a feeling of great release after several years of no comics conventions, but regardless everyone was happy to be there. (As I reported after the San Diego Comic-Con comeback “special edition” over last year’s Thanksgiving holiday, that show was noticeably less muted and low key, but it was a welcome way to ease back into the convention circuit following the COVID-19 lockdowns).

Below are additional photos from the show...click here to see the full gallery.

Capsule Reviews in the Time of Coronavirus (13): West Side Story and the Jack Benny Show

West Side Story

I initially planned to see West Side Story in the theater, but never got my act together (my son arguably was even more excited to see it since he did so separately with friends and greatly enjoyed it). So this past weekend, when it dropped on DisneyPlus, my wife and I watched it and greatly enjoyed it.

I generally don't automatically dismiss “remakes” as some people do, since the original production will always be around to be enjoyed and appreciated. Additionally, in live theater, many musicals and plays are regularly revived and re-staged—and re-imagined—for modern audiences. (In 2021, my wife and I saw the Lincoln Center touring production of “My Fair Lady” on stage when it came to town; and, in 2017, my family and I saw a touring production of “West Side Story,” which offered another point of comparison for me.)

That said, on the face of it, this was a faithful adaptation of the original stage production that also clearly paid homage and respected the original film. While some changes were made (as was done in the original film), the filmmakers reportedly worked to emulate and imitate many of the lighting and color cues of the first film. The end credits even paid homage to the opening credits of the first film. (The music and orchestration also felt very faithful and it was a thrill to hear updated for modern sound systems.)

That said, they still found ways to deepen the characters and heighten the story’s authenticity and emotional impact, mostly through some slight tweaks in the script but especially through Spielberg’s staging and his virtuosity as a filmmaker.

Though the original film “opened up” the story to take advantage of the streets and the gritty urban environment of New York, Spielberg and company take it further, staging “America” outdoors in the streets, “I Feel Pretty” in a Gimbels department store (a store I recalled going to as a young child with my mom!) and “Cool” on an abandoned pier.

The film also strengthens and tweaks Tony and Maria’s relationship—a sequence of them spending the day together in the city both makes them closer but also foreshadows potential pitfalls. Later in the scene, their joining together in a church to promise themselves to each other—a sort of faux wedding—also was reminiscent of the original source material, Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” a connection that my wife felt was more overt in this adaptation. The cast is great, with special kudos to Arian DeBose, whose work I first encountered and made a great impression on me in the AppleTV musical comedy series, Schmigadoon.

Spielberg is at the top of his game (though, let’s face it, he has been for many years now), but he really brings all these skills to bear in the film’s staging, production design and camera work. It’s a shame that this film has underperformed—it’s truly among the best and most heartfelt movies of 2021.

The Jack Benny Show

Years ago—even before the days of CD—shortly after college, I owned an audiocassette of random Jack Benny Radio Show episodes. Back in the day, I listened to it to death (audioshows are particularly great while drawing!). I found them genuinely funny and they were a revelation—sure, I was aware of him when I was growing up, occasionally showing up as a “special guest” on tv, but I was too young to have heard his radio show or watched his tv series first hand (which overlapped for several years). Between those recordings and discovering the transplendent To Be or Not To Be around college, I became a big admirer of Benny.

A few weeks ago, I went on a Benny kick and got to re-affirm my admiration for the comedian. Something triggered my memory of that audiotape (probably hidden away in some box somewhere at home), so I decided to see what I could find online…and, of course, there was plenty on YouTube, even though these were audio radio shows.

One was 11 hours(!) of consecutive radio shows) that I listened to over a couple days, followed by a 5-hour collection on another YouTube channel (strangely, with the musical numbers edited out). I also ended up watching a couple episodes of Benny’s tv show, partly because of the guest stars: one featured Jimmy Stewart and his real-life wife (I read that the Stewarts became Benny’s next-door neighbor comic foils on the series, in the same way actor Ronald Colman was a put-upon Benny neighbor on the radio show.) Another episode guest-starred Humphrey Bogart in what reportedly was his only tv appearance in his career— both appearances were not simple cameo walk-ons, but full episode performances.

If you’ve never listened to the radio show, I highly recommend them—not as nostalgic comedy pieces but because they are genuinely funny. They are also surprisingly meta, obviously pre-dating shows like the Garry Shandling Show that similarly took you behind the scenes of the show within the show.

One of Benny’s great strengths, of course, was surrounding himself with a great cast—I was recently listening to an interview with Barry Sonenfeld on the terrific Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Terrific Podcast (which I also recommend, especially if you love old Hollywood), who noted that the greatest comedians recognize that the greatest laughs are found not in the punch line per se, but in the reaction to the funny line—and Benny was the master of that, milking laughs with his reactions and pauses perfectly.

Anyway, the cast included his real-life wife Mary Livingstone, who eventually retired due to incredible stage fright she developed later in life, which is a shame since she’s truly terrific and has a great voice and delivery; his announcer Don Wilson, who in the shows I recently listened to, transparently tried to work in the name of the show’s sponsor, Jello, wherever he could shoehorn it in; his fizzy and hepcat orchestra leader Phil Harris; Dennis Day, the innocent naive tenor singer who replaced singer Kenny Baker, who reportedly left the show because he was unhappy playing someone so guileless; and, of course, Rochester, his valet.

Cutting the Adobe Cord

For several years, I’ve looked for viable substitutes to the Adobe Creative Adobe Suite (Adobe CS) of products, particularly Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver. These graphic design applications are industry standards but were discontinued as standalone desktop applications in 2013 in favor of a monthly cloud subscription model. Like many other users, I’ve not migrated to the online Adobe application to avoid the monthly premium subscription fee; however, as a result, I also have not upgraded my iMac operating system since the discontinued Adobe CS does not work on newer operating systems (I stopped updating with MacOS Sierra.)

These Adobe applications have been essential to my comics work: Illustrator for lettering; Photoshop for coloring, zipatone graytone/dot patterns, corrections, and assembling and saving the final pages in digital form (i.e., TIF files); InDesign for print projects like flyers and the text pages of my publications; and Dreamweaver for my website.

Knowing my days with these applications were numbered, in recent years I intermittently explored potential alternatives, including open source software like Gimp (for Photoshop) and Ink (for InDesign). Initially, none seemed ready for prime time or as robust as Adobe’s products…that is, until late last year, when I finally came across programs that fit the bill and, nearly as importantly, allowed me to access older files created with Adobe.

I’ve now nearly fully migrated to the following applications:

Clip Studio Paint (CSP)

I purchased an earlier iteration of this software application years ago for my daughter, when it was known as Manga Studio 5. Over the years, it obviously has become more robust, but for some reason, probably because of its initial manga focus, I never seriously considered it an option. So while exploring other graphics programs, on a lark, I downloaded the trial version. The more I played with it and learned its features, however, I was quickly won over.

CSP is a fairly full-featured program geared towards comics professionals and artists, combining together functions for which I traditionally used Photoshop and Illustrator, such as coloring, dot shading, post-production corrections and lettering. I feared the learning curve was going to be a lot steeper, but felt fairly comfortable and proficient within a few days. It helped that I decided to jump into it feet first with a whole new issue of Rob Hanes Adventures. I also had to color some commissions in full color and used it for these jobs. 

Among its advantages, CSP has a more direct way of applying classic dot patterns and the ability to directly apply special effects (both built in and as add-ons). With Photoshop, I often had multiple files for a single project (or comics page) that was later saved into a master document, so that I could easily go back and make changes; this was on top of a separate lettering layer created in Illustrator. Now, I pretty much can do it all within a single file with Clip Studio Paint!

Affinity
During my research, I also discovered a U.K. company called Affinity that offers three applications that are clearly intended to be affordable alternatives to Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign: respectively, Photo, Designer and Publisher.

They are very reminiscent of the early editions of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign when they were standalone programs. But they nevertheless have their own little quirks and approaches, which can be occasionally frustrating and non-intuitive. So thank goodness for YouTube (which also has been helpful in learning Clip Studio Paint).

Better yet, I discovered that Photo preserved all my layers of my old Photoshop files, which was the tipping point, and a priority for me. Strangely, this was not the case with the trial version of the application, which was an initial concern and possible deal breaker; but when I purchased and downloaded the full version, discovering this capability was an incredibly happy surprise.

A minor tick is that Clip Studio Paint for some reason does not like TIFF or EPS files created within Affinity, so the two programs don’t play well together. Fortunately, a workaround is to save the file as a PNG instead, which can then be imported into Clip Studio Paint.

I also subsequently learned that Publisher can't open older InDesign files. This is not as high a priority and something I can live with. 

That said, although Photo still comes in handy for other types of projects and for opening old files—as does Designer for more customized lettering that CSP can’t handle—CSP is now my primary comics post production tool.

Bonus Workaround Programs

BlueGriffon

My WCG Comics website was built from the ground up, using Adobe CS's Dreamweaver, a web design editor that allows for both WYSIWYG and html code editing. After downloading and playing with trial versions of other software, I found BlueGriffon to be a pretty good alternative. Though not quite as comprehensive as Dreamweaver, and also a bit quirky and clunky, it nevertheless has a similar feel and features, and it enables me to edit and tweak pages as needed. 

That said, I’m not sure the software is as conducive as Dreamweaver in building a website from scratch. But for now, I simply need a program to help maintain my current site, so I’ll cross that bridge later. (I last gave my website a major design overhaul in 2017.)

UPDATE (July 2022): Researching this application more, I subsequently learned that it has not been updated since 2019 and, worse, also likely would not work on newer iMac operating systems. I've since migrated my entire site to WordPress.

LibreOffice

Though I’ve moved most of my writing and spreadsheets to GoogleDocs, like many people, I am a longtime Microsoft Word user and occasionally still need a dedicated word processor for writing and opening old documents. (GoogleDocs also can't access the fonts on my computer, which is an occasional need of mine on some projects, and only uses only a standard family of fonts within the program.) Word also now has an online version, but it's not as full-featured as the regular program and is too dependent for my taste to Microsoft's cloud service, OneDrive.

Again, while looking into ways to free myself from the Microsoft Word environment, I came across by happenstance a terrific open source program called LibreOffice which can seamlessly open my existing Word (as well as Excel) documents (including password protected documents!) And not only can it save documents as native Word and Excel files, I was even able to open old WordPerfect documents that I hadn’t been able to open in years! Wow, score!

Remembering William Hurt

Remembering Will Eisner on his Birthday

A Visit to the New Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

To celebrate my recent birthday, I toyed with the idea of a trip to the ski slopes but better sense (and laziness) prevailed—instead, my wife and I visited the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures that opened late last year. It had been on our radar since it opened and I thought my birthday, which fell on an off-day in the middle of the week, would be a great time to visit. I was particularly impressed by how well art and artists were represented, particularly animation, character and costume design, and storyboard art.

The museum is located on L.A.’s “Museum Row” on property that’s contiguous with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art next door (which itself is undergoing major reconstruction from the ground up) and directly across the street from the Peterson Automotive Museum, which I visited and posted about in December. (The famous La Brea Tar Pits, which also has its own museum, sits on the other side of the county museum.) The Academy Museum itself occupies the former space of a prominent L.A. landmark, a May Company department store that was built in the 1930s, which was designated a historic landmark for its legacy and modern deco architectural design. Although the building has been completely overhauled, the museum kept the original distinctive street-facing facade. (The store closed in 1992 and I’m certain I visited that store at least once in the ‘80s.)

Otherwise, the building’s interior has been completely renovated, comprised of six stories of loft and exhibition spaces, as well as a 1000–seat theater and gala space, including an open air rooftop deck. And befitting a museum devoted to motion pictures, the Hollywood sign is visible from the building, as you can see in one of the pictures in the photogallery. (Fortunately, it was a beautiful clear day when we visited!)

The exhibitions were varied, encompassing classic, modern and international cinema, as well as the artistry and technology of the film industry. Reflecting the current climate, there also was an emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion, such as the contributions of women and people of color, as well as the lack thereof throughout Hollywood's history. Spike Lee and Pedro Almodovar were among the filmmakers showcased during my visit, as were many of the artists and early technological innovators of the industry. There also was an exhibit featuring the technological precursors of film, such as magic lanterns and flip books dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, and the work of Georges Méliès, the French illusionist and filmmaker who is considered the first film director, famous for films like A Trip to the Moon. The exhibits were multimedia, with many exhibit spaces and rooms full of multiple large flat screens showcasing highlights from numerous films and filmmakers. 

(I should add that Spike Lee's exhibit showed what a true movie fan he is. The exhibit featured many movie posters from his collection that were influences, often inscribed to Lee by the actors and directors, such as Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman.)

And, of course, many familiar and classic film artifacts and costumes were also on display, such as miniatures and space suits from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey: Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz; life masks of actors Grace Kelly, Clark Gable, Mel Brooks, Don Cheadle, and Eddie Murphy (used for pre-production hair design and fittings); the notorious Rosebud sled from Citizen Kane; and costumes and clothes, including the dude’s robe from the Big Lebowski (worn by actor Jeff Bridges) and Brad Pitt’s iconic outfit from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

As someone involved in comics and cartooning, I was particularly impressed by the focus on art and artists. One of the exhibitions, among the first announced more than a year before the museum opened, was devoted to influential Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist Hayao Miyazaki, responsible for beloved and respected animated films like Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Ponyo, and many more. Concept art, storyboards, manga pages, and more were part of the exhibit (however, no photography or video was allowed at this specific exhibit whatsoever!).

In addition to an exhibit devoted to the art of matte painting, storyboard art was prominently featured throughout the museum, such as the storyboards from the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Another exhibit was devoted to animation—the animator’s desk that belonged to Frank Thomas—one of Disney’s “Nine Old Men”—was a prominent display at the exhibit (which seemed partially curated by Pixar director Richard Docter—a fan letter he wrote to Thomas as a teen was on display as well). Diverse animated movies and shorts were represented, ranging from Wallace and Gromit to Bugs Bunny.

The history of the Academy Awards was featured—one room provided a timeline of the ceremonies by year (along with a list of the nominees and winners), with clips of memorable award acceptance speeches continuously being shown. There also was a room devoted to displaying quite a number of Oscar statuettes, both on loan and from the Academy's collection. Included in the collection was the first one ever given for best picture and Clark Gable’s Best Actor Award for It Happened One Night.

The Museum includes on site an elegant and upscale bistro/café  (named Fanny’s, after Fanny Brice) and a museum store with additional “pop up” stores inside—such as a “Spike’s Joint” store with paraphernalia from his films and a pop up for Amoeba Records, a well known California boutique music store chain, which featured vinyl pressings of movie scores, like Star Wars scores from Japan and scores from a variety of films like Singin’ in the Rain, the Hateful Eight, West Side Story, and Psycho.

By the way, an opportunity at the museum (for an extra fee) includes “The Oscar Experience,” which offers visitors the opportunity to hear their name announced and to “accept” an award at a simulated Oscars Show at the Dolby Theatre (where the award show is now held) that is recorded for you! I have no interest in such a souvenir, though I joked with my wife that we should sign up for it and show up at the museum in a tux and evening wear lol.

Anyway, this is just a taste of what I saw at the museum—as a movie fan (who happens to live in property that used to be part of the old MGM lot, which is now Sony Studios and up the road from me!), it was a treat to finally visit.

Below are additional photos from the visit...click here to see the full photogallery.